Le baguage couleur des limicoles dans la réserve naturelle de Moëze-Oléron

To better understand the biology, the movements and the demographic evolution of Waders, monitoring programs have been established through the World. Colour-marking is one of the most-used method, as individual or group of birds with bright marks allow to record their identity from a distance, with a spotting-scope for example.
In the case of Waders, this technique can lead to more effective accumulation of data on migrations compared with conventional ringing. Plastic leg rings is often used as colour marks.
The natural reserve of Moëze-Oléron, on the Western French coast, has established since 2001 a monitoring program for six species (Common Curlew, Black-tailed Godwit, Bar-tailed Godwit, Grey Plover, Common Redshank and Spotted Redshank) (+ Greenshank and Ruff since 2007) to better know the way they use the whole area « Charente-Seudre-Oléron » around the reserve, their way of feeding, their movements, their fidelity to a given place, the moulting process and the migration ways.
In this article, we present you the different marks used, and more globally we explain the advantages of colour-ringing programs.